Dokploy
Deploy Portabase on Dokploy in one click and automate backups of the PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB and Redis databases your Dokploy instance manages.
Dokploy is an open-source, self-hosted PaaS built on Docker and Traefik - a Vercel/Netlify/Heroku alternative for your own servers. Portabase is published in its template catalogue, so the Dashboard and its PostgreSQL database deploy together in a few clicks, with no docker-compose.yml to write.
Useful links: Dokploy website · Dokploy documentation · Dokploy on GitHub
You need a working Dokploy instance, and a domain pointing at it if you want HTTPS. See the requirements for the rest.
Installation
Create the service
Open the project you want to deploy into, click Create Service and choose Template.
Pick Portabase from the catalogue
Search for Portabase in the template list and create it.
Dokploy provisions the Portabase container together with its PostgreSQL database, and
pre-fills the generated values (database credentials, PROJECT_SECRET).
Set the domain
In the service's Domains tab, add the public host of the Portabase container, for
example portabase.example.com, targeting port 80. Enable HTTPS so Dokploy issues
the certificate through Traefik - our own
reverse proxy guide is not needed here.
Make sure the PROJECT_URL environment variable matches that exact public URL,
scheme included. Agents use it to reach the Dashboard.
Review the secret
PROJECT_SECRET encrypts everything the agents exchange with the Dashboard, and
the credentials stored in it. Keep it backed up, and never change it once agents
are connected - previously encrypted data would no longer be readable.
If it wasn't generated for you, set it to a strong random value:
openssl rand -hex 32The full list of what you can tune is on the environment variables page.
Deploy
Click Deploy and wait for the container to become healthy, then open your domain and follow getting started.
Backing up Dokploy-managed databases
Dokploy runs each database as a Docker container on its own Docker network. For the Portabase Agent to reach them, connect the agent container to that network as well:
# List the networks Dokploy created, then attach the agent to the right one
docker network ls
docker network connect <dokploy-network> portabase-agentThen declare the database in the Dashboard using the container name as the host, and its normal
port. Databases running on the host rather than in a container are reachable through the
extra_hosts mapping already present in the agent compose file.
Per-engine settings - required grants, dump options, restore behaviour - are documented in the databases section.
Troubleshooting
- The agent shows as offline. Check that
PROJECT_URLis the public HTTPS URL of the Dashboard, not an internal container name, then review the agent configuration. - The agent cannot reach a database. It is almost always a Docker network issue - see the section above.
- You changed
PROJECT_SECRET. Existing encrypted data cannot be recovered. Restore the previous value.
More answers in the FAQ.
Related pages
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